Caring for Country: History and Alchemy in the Making and Management of Indigenous Australian Land

被引:11
|
作者
Pleshet, Noah [1 ]
机构
[1] Australian Natl Univ, Ctr Native Title Anthropol, Canberra, ACT, Australia
关键词
indigenous Australia; language; country; nurturance; natural resource management; WESTERN DESERT; WARLPIRI; DOMAIN; ORGANIZATION; LANDSCAPE;
D O I
10.1002/ocea.5188
中图分类号
Q98 [人类学];
学科分类号
030303 ;
摘要
This paper traces the history of caring for country' tropes in writing about indigenous Australian land and land management. While caring for country' initially referred to dynamic land use and ownership practices, it progressively became a less historical, more primordial, conception of indigenous land ownership, use, and management. In reviewing constructions of land' in scholarly literatures and policy debates, I seek to explain how they interact with local indigenous practices and idioms. Drawing on examples from the cultural and linguistic fields of A?angu, speakers of Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara, I examine a variety of concurrent uses of country', caring', or nurturance' and caring for country'. A cross-linguistic perspective on these objectifications - in English, Aboriginal English, and central Australian indigenous languages - shows how they may attend selectively to the historical specificity of indigenous experience. But this, I argue, may be the key to their efficacy in intercultural projects. Coded messages in bilingual documents reflect a kind of agency whereby A?angu choose to leave equivocal histories unstated and thereby reconstitute government projects in terms that work for them. The referential flexibility around idioms of land and nurturance is a kind of alchemy in language and social life that is the condition of the success of actual land management activities. Terms including country' and caring for country' elide the socio-political dynamics that otherwise complicate actual rights and uses of land. That is why they can form the social basis of common activities, the production of congeniality' both within A?angu social life and at the interface with outsiders, in land management and other fields.
引用
收藏
页码:183 / 201
页数:19
相关论文
共 50 条
  • [1] Caring for country - Yuwalaraay women and attachments to land on an Australian colonial frontier
    Evans, J
    Grimshaw, P
    Standish, A
    [J]. JOURNAL OF WOMENS HISTORY, 2003, 14 (04) : 15 - 37
  • [2] Development and preliminary validation of the 'Caring for Country' questionnaire: measurement of an Indigenous Australian health determinant
    Burgess, Christopher P.
    Berry, Helen L.
    Gunthorpe, Wendy
    Bailie, Ross S.
    [J]. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR EQUITY IN HEALTH, 2008, 7 (1)
  • [3] Development and preliminary validation of the 'Caring for Country' questionnaire: measurement of an Indigenous Australian health determinant
    Christopher P Burgess
    Helen L Berry
    Wendy Gunthorpe
    Ross S Bailie
    [J]. International Journal for Equity in Health, 7
  • [4] Caring for indigenous Australian children with asthma
    Chang, AB
    Shannon, C
    Masters, IB
    [J]. THORAX, 2000, 55 (09) : 808 - 808
  • [5] Australian Indigenous Land Management, Ecological Knowledge and Languages for Conservation
    Schultz, Rosalie
    Abbott, Tammy
    Yamaguchi, Jessica
    Cairney, Sheree
    [J]. ECOHEALTH, 2019, 16 (01) : 171 - 176
  • [6] Australian Indigenous Land Management, Ecological Knowledge and Languages for Conservation
    Rosalie Schultz
    Tammy Abbott
    Jessica Yamaguchi
    Sheree Cairney
    [J]. EcoHealth, 2019, 16 : 171 - 176
  • [7] Buying back and caring for country: Institutional arrangements and possibilities for indigenous lands management in Australia
    Lane, MB
    [J]. SOCIETY & NATURAL RESOURCES, 2002, 15 (09) : 827 - 846
  • [8] Country of the Heart: An Indigenous Australian Homeland
    Garde, Murray
    [J]. ABORIGINAL HISTORY, 2014, 38 : 193 - 194
  • [9] MAKING REAL GOLD + THE HISTORY OF ALCHEMY
    BURCKHARDT, T
    [J]. PARABOLA-MYTH TRADITION AND THE SEARCH FOR MEANING, 1991, 16 (01): : 54 - 59
  • [10] Indigenous Land Management in Peri-Urban Landscapes: An Australian Example
    Wilson, Rachele S.
    Pearce, Tristan
    Jones, Kerry
    Fleischfresser, Sean
    Davis, Bridgette
    Jones, Genevieve
    Lieske, Scott
    [J]. SOCIETY & NATURAL RESOURCES, 2018, 31 (03) : 335 - 350